The missteps of Sears are plain to see in the bold letters on banners outside and inside its soon-to-be-shuttered stores.
“Store closing.”
“Nothing held back.”
“Everything must go.”
For many Sears locations in Southern California, this holiday shopping season represents the last Christmas for an iconic brand that was, in its heyday, the Amazon.com of its time.
Time and a lack of strategy have whittled the all-purpose retailer into a shell of its former self. The company lost its household catalog dominance to the aforementioned e-commerce titan and faced withering competition for tools and appliances from Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Despite its demise, some shoppers still believe in Sears. The mood at 12 area stores marked for closure has been relatively upbeat as customers browse discounted goods and recall a time when the retailer was their go-to spot for toys, clothes and those Craftsman tools.
Marilyn Lynch, an 87-year-old Riverside shopper, remembers the 1965 opening on Arlington Avenue. “It was beautiful,” she said. She still shops at Sears and recently bought a bedspread that she said she couldn’t find anywhere else.
The Riverside store was mostly empty in recent days, with many of its shelves scraped clean of goods. Signs reminded shoppers that merchandise could not be returned and the layaway program had ended. The outdoors department was down to its final two grills, a shed and a few tables with matching chairs.
“It’s sad, but it’s just a different kind of shopping world now,” said shopper Anita Lopez, 40, who lives near the store and made a stop to buy Christmas decorations and children’s clothes and toys. “I guess I’ll just have to find someplace else to shop.”
At Sears in North Hollywood on Monday morning, foot traffic was brisk.
Last-minute holiday customers weaved through aisles of marked-down clothing and shoes as harried employees responded to customer requests.
The North Hollywood store for decades has been a staple location for Sears, serving generations of baby boomers and post-World War II families who settled in the San Fernando Valley.
“It’s history we are losing,” said Garrie Katznelson as she prepared to walk into the store, which has shrunk over the years. “I just wish there was something we could do about it.”
On life support
Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, a New York-based retail consulting firm, figures Sears is on life support.
“Everyone is surprised they’re still around,” he said. “Sears is a lot like Glenn Close at the end of ‘Fatal Attraction.’ They keep coming back and you’re thinking, ‘OK … we’re done.’ But then they rear their head again. None of it has made sense for so long.”
Phibbs said Sears made a lot of missteps.
“The brand didn’t have to go away,” he said. “They should have been Amazon. They had the distribution network, the catalog list, the infrastructure and the trucking … they missed it on so many levels.”
Transform Holdco, which acquired the remaining assets of bankrupt retailer Sears Holdings Corp. in February, recently announced the closure of 96 Sears and Kmart locations, including 28 stores in California — 19 Sears stores and nine Kmarts. That will leave just 182 Sears and Kmart stores nationwide.
It also will also put about 1,220 people out of work across Southern California’s six counties, according to data from the state Employment Development Department.
In a statement issued before Thanksgiving, Transform Holdco, also known as TransformCo, said it has faced “a difficult retail environment and other challenges” since it purchased the stores.
“We have been working hard to position TransformCo for success by focusing on our competitive strengths and pruning operations that have struggled due to increased competition and other factors,” the company said, adding it will focus on its better-performing stores and its service businesses, brands and other assets.
Local Sears locations set for closure:
- 3755 Santa Rosalia Dr., Los Angeles
- 12121 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood
- 3295 E. Main St., Ventura
- 1209 Plaza Dr., West Covina
- 5080 Monclair Plaza Lane, Montclair
- 8150 La Palma Ave., Buena Park
- 5261 Arlington Ave., Riverside
- 100 Inland Center, San Bernardino
- 40710 Winchester Road, Temecula
- 22550 Town Circle, Moreno Valley
- 72-880 Highway 111 Palm Desert
- 14420 Bear Valley Road, Victorville
Local Kmart locations set for closure
- 7840 Limonite Ave., Jurupa Valley
- 895 Faulkner Road, Santa Paula
Out of touch and soon to close
The stores launched going-out-of-business sales on Dec. 2 with locations expected to be shuttered in February.
Christina Garcia stopped in Monday at the Sears in West Covina. It’s set to close Feb. 16.
“I rarely shop here because the prices are too expensive and the clothes aren’t my style,” the 26-year-old Rosemead resident said. “I go to J.C. Penney and Nordstrom. They have more sales.”
Maria Guttierez, who also shopped there on Monday, is worried about the displaced workers.
“It’s terrible,” she said. “When a company lets you go and you start a new job, the pay is lower. And in California rents are really high.”
Inside the store, signs throughout promote deep discounts. “20% to 50% off lowest ticketed price,” one sign proclaimed, while others announced a 50% discount on shoes and 75% off on jewelry.
Katznelson in North Hollywood said she’d been shopping at that Sears for 30 years, drawn in by good customer service, promotions and quality brands like Craftsman.
On Monday, a “Store Closing” banner hung in the front facade of the store where a beautiful cursive Sears sign once ruled the day.
“It’s just sad that a lot of our brick-and-mortar” stores are going away,” she said.
Repurposing the space
Landlords, cities and developers will have to figure out what to do with all of those empty retail spaces.
“Some of them could be carved up, or there could be an opportunity to create something like an indoor gym,” said economist Robert Kleinhenz of Kleinhenz Economics. “Having an indoor soccer or basketball court might be another way to repurpose the space.”
Kleinhenz said a reconversion would allow malls to boost their “experiential retail” concept, which makes such venues more of an overall consumer destination that extends beyond shopping.
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